Wave Power

A new class of elastic energy converters is emerging, with the ability to capture energy from a variety of different motions. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is pushing to deploy them, first in a series of strange, bendy wave energy designs.

CalWave has been working on its xWave clean power technology for many years now, and has announced the successful conclusion of an extended open-ocean test off the coast of San Diego, in which the device demonstrated over 99% system uptime.

Sea Wave Energy Ltd has been working for more than a decade on an ultra-cheap floating wave energy device. With several prototypes tested, the company is promising capacities over 100 MW, with unheard-of energy cost figures under 1 cent per kWh. Hmm.

Wave Swell Energy's remarkable UniWave 200 is a sea platform that uses an artificial blowhole formation to create air pressure changes that drive a turbine and feed energy back to shore. After a year of testing, the company reports excellent results.

Sweden-based Eco Wave Power has announced that the first of 10 floats has been successfully installed on the sea wall at Jaffa Port in Israel, marking an important milestone for the company's second grid-connected wave energy harvesting project.

If you've ever peeked below the surface of the ocean, you'll have seen seaweed waving back and forth in the current. Scientists from China's Dalian Maritime University have now utilized that same motion in an underwater energy-harvesting device.

Scientists investigating the massive untapped potential of wave energy have come up with a novel design for a convertor they say operates with far greater efficiency than comparable solutions, and could open the door to widespread use of the technology.

There are energy sources all over the place, if you know where to look. Researchers at CUHK have now designed new modular nanogenerators that can harvest energy from various different types of motion, such as ocean waves or a person's body movements.

A 200-kilowatt demonstration version of Wave Swell Energy's fascinating "blowhole" power generator has been deployed at Grassy Harbour on King Island, off the Australian island state of Tasmania, and will be connected to the grid in the coming months.

German company Sinn Power has proposed a hybrid offshore power generation platform that combines wind turbines, solar panels and wave energy harvesters to generate off-grid electricity for people living close to the coast.

Although autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are electrically-powered, they're launched from fuel-burning surface vessels. A new, more environmentally-friendly system is being designed to replace those ships with wave-powered underwater AUV stations.

Following a second grid-connected project at Jaffa Port in Israel, Eco Wave Power is looking to get more from its energy harvesters by adding solar.